Sermons and Divrei Torah
Jonah
by Helena Burnstein
(Dvar Torah - Yom Kippur 5765)
JONAH (and the Compassion of G-d)
(In memory of my parents: Irvin Burnstein & Ronnie (Burnstein) Berger
I collect newspaper cartoons. One of my favourites is a 'Cathy' cartoon. She is a young, single woman, clumsily trying to cope. In this one, a potential new boyfriend, wearing a jogging suit, huffs and puffs, telling her how many miles he's run in the last few days. He asks, "Are you into running, too, Cathy? In the bubble over her head we hear her thoughts: 'I ran from Irving, I run from commitments, I run from dealing with issues,' and she responds, "Oh, I love running. I run all the time!"
Jonah, our reluctant prophet, is the example 'par excellence' of the one who 'runs from'! He has already proven himself as a prophet among the Hebrew people. He has already been scoffed at and ridiculed when his prophecy did not come true. And, now, here was G-d asking him to go to Ninevah in Assyria--to the Gentiles--to a known enemy of Israel! How much more horrible to be ridiculed and humiliated there, because he just knows the people will repent, and G-d, so full of compassion, will relent and not destroy them--to say nothing of his anger at G-d for daring to spare an enemy!
Jonah runs from G-d, in the opposite direction from Ninevah, even though he surely knows (as we know) there is no escaping G-d, as the psalmist says:
Where can I go from Your spirit, Oh where from Your face can I flee?
If I climb the heavens, You are there! If I make Sheol my bed, You are there!
If I flew to the point of sunrise, or westward across the sea,
Your hand would still be guiding me, Your right hand holding me….
It was You who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother's womb…. (Ps. 139)
Jonah goes by ship, but G-d causes a storm while he sleeps a sleep of numbing out. He allows himself to be thrown overboard to save the sailors, because he doesn't care if he lives or dies, and is swallowed by a huge fish.
Actually, many cultures have 'swallowed by a fish and surviving' stories. There is the example of Heracles in mythology. There is even our very own Canadian connection in the Newfoundland folk song, 'Jack was every inch a sailor' in which Jack is swallowed by a whale in a storm in Baffin's Bay, but, "Jack just grabbed that whale, by the tale, and turned him inside out!"
After three days, Jonah is a changed man and is spewed out, and finally prophecies to the Ninevites. Sure enough, they repent! G-d spares them, and Jonah is outraged! G-d uses Jonah's anger at a bush that has withered that had sheltered him to illustrate that if Jonah is moved by the loss of only a bush, how much greater should be his (and G-d's) compassion for an entire people!
When I responded to Rabbi Goldstein's request for a volunteer for 'Jonah' last week, I had actually forgotten that it is the Haftarah for Yom Kippur afternoon. As well as the obvious message of God's forgiveness, as I have 'lived with the text, pondered it, chewed it, breathed it during the past week, my main question was, "Why in the world is 'this' the reading on Yom Kippur afternoon?" Yes—G-d saves the people of Ninevah. But there are many other instances of sin, repentance, and God relenting!
David Nativ says that, " Our sages wanted to place at the centre of our attention Jonah and his actions--that there seems to be something in the conflict between Jonah and God worthy of our attention immediately prior to the Ne'ila prayer: The sequence is Jonah's escape from his destiny, his escape from God and his escape from self."
Perhaps, then, the sages knew that we would also be forced this week to come face to face with these very same things in our own lives. In Jonah's running we see our own running: from ourselves--our commitments--our own truth! In essence, we are running from G-d--the source and foundation of our being!
Jonah's sleep in the ship is one of numbness rather than any sense of peace while the sailors are frantic in the storm, say the commentaries. The descent from land to sea, to the bowels of the ship, to being thrown overboard into the swirling waters and swallowed up by the fish is seen as an image of increasing alienation from self!
In fact, is not 'the' sin encompassed in all our varieties of sins, that of our self-alienation—and numbing ourselves to 'forget' what it we have run from?
The images of the water and the fish particularly speak to me! I have mobility issues, but I feel incredible freedom when I swim, and move, and swirl around in the pool. Yet, I can so easily be 'swallowed up' by disturbing things that arise in my life. It is as though the moments of greatest freedom contain the possibility of the deepest alienation—like a two-edged sword. It reminds me of the words in Deuteronomy:
Behold, I set before you life and death…therefore, choose life!
We are constantly called upon to re-make that choice for freedom--for life!
Surely G-d could have used someone else to prophecy to the Ninevites! But G-d knew it was Jonah, in all his uniqueness, including his weakness, who was needed. It is we, too, whom G-d needs, each with our own uniqueness, for tikkun olam (to repair the world), but, just like Jonah, sometimes we have to hit 'rock bottom' before we 'get it'!
We don't know what happened in the fish. My child's image--perhaps I saw it in a storybook, had Jonah on a bench in the whale's stomach, and there is a midrash that explains that Jonah was so comfortable there he would have never left, so God sent a female fish with 365,000 little fish in her stomach. Jonah was transferred there where he had so little room that he prayed for G-d to deliver him. Isn't it often that way with us, when, perhaps we've had time on a retreat or in meditation, or have had an experience of deeply connecting with someone so our 'souls meet', and we have to nudge ourselves (or circumstances do it for us) back to the task at hand?
The images of the male and female fishes arise because, as the Plaut commentary points out, fish (dahg) is masculine, 'as the death-dealing monster swallowing him up, but in the very next verse the fish becomes the feminine (dahgah), 'an accommodating, willing, obedient creature in the service of the rescuing Providence of God.
I particularly like what Rabbi Myriam Klotz in 'The Women's Haftarah Commentary' does with this feminine image of the fish. She identifies it with, "…the power of the Divine feminine, to vastly, (and I love this word) oceanically contain the potential for new life, to gestate it, and to forge a most terrific birthing, sometimes even in spite of deep resistance." She poetically describes the fish as, "…an enclosure for generativity and birth—a womblike container within which Jonah might be symbolically gestated for a period of time, and born anew." This is particularly powerful when coupled with, as you will recall, the words of Psalm 139: "It was You who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother's womb."
I believe 'this' is the healing and rebirth that takes place in us, also, if we open ourselves in all our fragility and vulnerability, especially on this Yom Kippur day, before our G-d of Compassion who will not let go of us—even when we let go of ourselves—and who embraces us—often stretching us to our limit—to draw us back!
At this point of the day, almost at the end--perhaps exhuasted, worrying over whether we've done t'shuvah (repentance) well, tired, and certainly hungry, this reading asks us to trust in G-d's mercy and compassion."
James Ackerman says that what appeared as a cry from Jonah in the fish was actually a song of thanksgiving. In fact, the Plaut commentary tells us that "He does not, however, pray for deliverance; rather, he thanks God for past help.
Jonah emerges! He willingly goes to Ninevah and prophecies! After only the first day, we are told the people heard the message and repented! (And), Jonah got embarrassed and furious at God for not destroying Ninevah!!!
I struggled with Jonah's anger—esp. after the eloquence and imagery of healing and rebirth. We also know that the people of Ninevah, (Assyria) eventually reverted to their old ways, and were eventually responsible for exiling the Israelites. Finally, I think I suddenly 'got it'! Jonah messed up again! The Ninevites messed up again! We, too, will mess up again!
Yom Kippur does not mean the end of faltering! One way or another, G-d will pick us up again, and trust us again-- whether through the circumstances of our lives, the people on our path, moments of prayer, either alone or in community—to be all we can be in love and compassion. (This is not licence to sin again, but a recognition that t'shuvah (repentance) is an on-going, intentional process.) In turn, we are called to show the same compassion to ourselves (whom we usually forget), to one another, and, clearly, beyond to our world! For our sages very deliberately chose a reading on this day of all days showing G-d's compassion for the non-Jew-- the sailors-- the people of Ninevah-- our enemy!
The other night, I sat in the Elgin theatre, surrounded by many Jewish people at the Toronto International Film festival, schmoozing, hearing lots of 'Shana Tova's while waiting for the film, 'Isn't This A Time!' to start. This retrospective and film of a Carnegie Hall concert last year re-united Pete Seeger and the Weavers; Peter, Paul and Mary; Leon Bibb; Arlo Guthrie (Woody Guthrie's son) and others—as a tribute to Harold Leventhal, who had managed all of them—and had enabled the Weavers to 'begin again' after they were blacklisted many years ago for singing out (perhaps too radically?) for justice many years ago. The reflections, and songs of justice felt like a continuation of the call for t'shuvah and reminded me of what was important!
After the movie, we were delightfully treated to a short live performance by these now eighty-something Weavers—perhaps their last time publicly performing together--with, as the emcee said, old bodies but young spirits. When they asked us to unite our voices for justice, especially at this difficult time in our world, and do everything possible to influence our leaders, I was reminded that it was the Ninevite people who first repented and changed their ways. Jonah had prophesied on the first day of a three day journey through the city. It was only after all of 'these people' had responded, that the King 'then' responded, and issued the decree to everyone! This is our model, read to us on Yom Kippur day.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has said that on Yom Kippur, the term, 'You shall afflict your souls' can actually be interpreted as, 'You shall enable your souls to sing, to rejoice.'
At this time of renewal and rebirth, may we embrace a prophetic vision, however reluctantly, in a Song of Compassion to ourselves, to each other, and to our broken world!
Sermons and Divrei Torah
Additional Resources
Elul: Period of Preparation
Yamim Noraim: Days of Awe
Rosh Hashanah: Introduction
Shofar Symbolism
The Custom of Tashlich
Yom Kippur: Introduction
G'mar Chatima Tova...
